


In Sickness and in Health

by Teen_Wolf_Guy



Series: Stydia Fics [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood Letting (For Potion), F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Love Confessions, Made Up Virus, My First Work in This Fandom, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Non-sexual showering together, Past Lydia Martin/Jackson Whittemore, Please be gentle, Post-Canon, Sickfic, Stream of Consciousness, Virus, Vomiting, gross body stuff, lockdown - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:14:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23341543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teen_Wolf_Guy/pseuds/Teen_Wolf_Guy
Summary: Stiles blindly runs to Lydia's rescue at MIT in the middle of an epidemic and now they're both on lockdown.
Relationships: Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Stydia Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678669
Comments: 2
Kudos: 52
Collections: Lock Down Fest





	In Sickness and in Health

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This was for the Lockdown fest on Tumblr. I'm new to the fandom. I'm kinda shy about my Teen Wolf content. I've been binging and I jumped on the Stydia ship durring the Echien House heist. This fic has a couple of throwaway original characters who are purely plot devices so sorry in advance for that. I couldn't really think of any other canon werewolves who would just be going to MIT.
> 
> I hope everyone is staying safe with everything going on and staying inside (If you can).

Lydia just wanted a good first year at MIT. That was her one wish. However, it would seem that she wasn't allowed to have that. At first it was whispers, soft whispers in the back of her mind when she was in that place between sleep and awake.   
  
She should have known that it was going to be too much to ask. A single week was far too long for something to not go wrong, nevermind a semester. “Yes,” she spoke to Jackson on the phone. “It’s probably nothing, but could you please have Scott call me? I’ve been trying to reach him for two days.”   
  
“Couldn’t you have just called his wife?” Jackson asked, jealousy obvious in his tone.   
  
Lydia paused. She and Stiles hadn’t really ‘gotten together’ officially, and she was having a little bit of trouble with the distance and Liam wasn’t exactly someone she would call casually. “Jealousy is not a good color on you when you’re with someone else too.” Lydia hummed and it was almost innocent. “Will you please just tell Scott he better call me before I come down there myself?”

“Fine.” Jackson paused. “I … hope MIT is everything you wanted.”   
  
“Thank you, Jackson. It is. I can’t wait to come back for the wedding. Take care.” she hung up the phone.   
  
She didn’t hear back from Scott for another two days. Which pissed her off more than anything. The whispers had gotten louder but they were still completely unclear. She made her way to the library and tried to act like everything was normal. 

She decided to study with Jessica another Junior, she would feel better around one of the werewolves she knew and Jessica and Michael were by far the nearest. They were in her dorm hall, part of a small pack of three. She and Jessica spent the day in the library, however around noon, a girl from one of their classes came in. She was one of the younger students who skipped a grade or two and she didn’t look well.   
  
It was Jessica who moved from her seat to check on the girl and make sure she went to the nurses station. However, that ended up in Jessica’s flats getting drenched in vomit. The young girl immediately began crying and apologising.   
  
Jessica’s response was only to take the girl to the nurses station. Lydia’s eyes widened as she became acutely aware that the girl was going to die. The interpretation seemed to hike up the whispers, she could hear them all around. She quickly packed up her things and rushed to an empty bathroom. “What?” she whispered to herself, desperate for answers to the hushed sounds in her mind.   
  
She marched her way across campus to her car and got into it, starting to drive. She didn’t stop until she reached her destination; A wooded area. She got out of the car and started walking through the brush. The whole county would hear her of course, but she had to be far enough away that no one would find her.   
  
When she was far enough in, she screamed, the sound visibly shredding through the air and into one of the nearby trees. Things started to be more clear, faces and names but little else. When she returned to campus, things were busy. Apparently three students had been checked into the nurses station with extreme symptoms. All three of them were on the list of 50 names she’d gathered.  _ This is going to be an epidemic _ . She thought desperately. 

She rushed to her dorm and started to wash her hands, not sure what else she could do in the moment. She had been exposed to whatever it was. As she was drying her hands, Scott finally decided to call her.   
  
“Hello.” she answered cooly.   
  


“Hey Lydia, what’s up?”

“You would know if you returned my call more than six days after I’ve been trying to reach you.”

He sighed. “Sorry, it’s been a mess over here. I still haven’t found that rogue pack we’re looking for.”   


“Well, MIT is about to have an epidemic, and more than fifty people will die.” She explained a little too casually, she was scared, but she had to tell Scott what was going on. “I’ve been hearing whispers for a few days and I was worried it was something different.”   
  
Scott stopped what he was doing and it was audible. “Shit, what should we do?”   
  
“You shouldn’t do anything.” Lydia pointed out. “They’ll be locking the place down soon, there’s already three cases of the mystery illness. One’s a sixteen year old Freshmen, she’ll die first.” there was nothing Lydia could do about that. She had to stay put.   
  
“Why are there sixteen year old Freshmen?”   
  
“Because she’s a genius that doesn’t really matter right now, Scott.”   
  
“I’m sorry, you’re right.”   
  
There was a loud rapping on the door, Lydia paused at first. She really hadn’t expected anyone, maybe one of the werewolves, but Jessica was more one to text  _ I’m here _ than to bother with knocking.   
  
She opened the door and Stiles stood in the doorway, panting slightly and leaning on the doorframe. “Hey.” he breathed heavy.   
  
“Stiles, you can’t be here!” She hissed, but gestured for him to come into the room. “There’s some sort of virus here.”   
  
“Scott told me. So I got a red-eye.”   
  
Lydia pressed her hands to her forehead. “I can’t take care of you, Stiles.”   
  
“I’m here for you. I wasn’t going to leave you alone in the middle of this.” he said softly. “Fill me in, what’s the situation?”   
  
“The situation is an epidemic, a virus, that you’re not exposed to. Genius. Jessica and her pack left.”   
  
Lydia’s phone went off with an email from the college. “Well, we’re locked down now. Fifteen cases of this mysterious virus today.” 

“That’s unusual.”

Lydia sighed. “So many people are going to die, and for once we can’t do anything besides let the CDC handle it.”   
  
“...and now you're gonna be quarantined with me." Stiles exhaled. "Sorry."

"Better you than someone intolerable," she reached out for his hand and then stopped. This was going to be a rough time.

Stiles set up his bag sometime later. He'd stopped and gotten them some food on his way there. He put what he could in her small fridge and more in a cooler. He was glad there was an ice machine in the dorm and not just one of those big open coolers. It would be fine as long as they wiped it down before they used it.   
  
“You really came prepared,” Lydida pointed out. She really wished things were different right now.   
  
He shrugged. “I really didn’t know how long we’d be trapped here, I brought your favorite.”  
  
“Thanks,” she smiled a bit weakly. She wanted to touch him, but she knew she shouldn’t. She kept thinking about the Ghost Riders. She still hadn’t told Stiles she loved him, part of her knew that he knew, but that kind of thing still mattered to her.

It was getting closer to the evening so Lydia was trying to wind down. She was sure classes would be canceled in the next few days, but she still didn’t want to get locked into some strange schedule.   
-   
The first day or two went by without any issue for them. They were in their own little world, more than well aware of the chaos going on outside. They were able to find peace only sometimes, in quiet moments. It was the first week when things started to get stressful.   
  
Stiles had set up a spot for himself on the small sofa in her room, and was mainly focused on notes he was taking. Lydia watched him focus, which was always interesting because he could never sit still. She used to find it distracting, but eventually she found comfort in his rhythms.   
  
Now would have been a fantastic time to tell him she loved him, right now when she was admiring him and trying not to think about what the next month or more would look like.   
  
Lydia rose from the bed and settled onto the sofa next to Stiles. “Hi,” he said softly.   


“What’s going on in that big brain? Just anxious about the quarantine?” he asked, he’d never been intimidated by Lydia’s intelligence, in fact he was always enamored by it. As one of the only people who noticed, he always encouraged her.   
  
Lydia didn’t know how to say that she wanted to hold his hand without sounding a bit childish. “I was just, thinking about you.” she admitted. “I’d hoped the first time I saw you this year would be … different.”   
  
“Yeah.” he let out a breath and rubbed his face, putting his notebook away. “Trouble always seems to find us though. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things.”  
  
She looked up at him with her doe-like eyes. “Like what?”   
  
“Like the kiss.”   
  
“Which one?”

“I guess … both of them.” he scratched the back of his head. “Sorry.”   
  
“Why are you sorry?”   
  
“I guess we just never talked about it.”   
  
She moved closer to him on the sofa. “There was too much going on.” she carefully reached out to hold his hand, but she stopped, drawing her hand back. “Anyway, we’ve got nothing but time now but lets focus on something else.” She was not about to risk getting into a fight with Stiles when they were locked down together.   
  
“You can hold my hand, Lydia. I can tell you’ve been wanting to the last few days.”   
  
“I shouldn’t. I’ve been here longer than you, I could be carrying the virus.” She pointed out in a very matter-of-fact tone.   
  


Stiles gently pushed her hair back, bringing their foreheads together. “I’m already exposed. I don’t care. If you were carrying anything I’d be next regardless of if I kept away from you. Besides, you already know I’m not going to die.”   
  
“That could change.”   
  
“It’s not going to.” Stiles carefully brushed her hair back, it was slicked down at the top from sweat but he pushed it out of her face and placed a soft kiss to her forehead. “and I’m not going anywhere.”

Lydia relaxed slightly at his words, it was almost funny. She had werewolf friends, she even had a hell hound that could burn through mountain ash-- but Stiles? Stiles managed to make her feel safe. This human man whom, before recently relied on a metal bat to fight. It wasn’t about his physical strength though, it was about his determination. Lydia knew he would help her when she couldn’t help herself and even if he stepped back he would be there. In thus case: in the room, on her sofa.   
  
She turned to press her face into his neck. If he was going to get sick from her, he would. The room wasn’t exactly large. Just enough room for her bed, a dresser and her desk. The bathroom was a bit nicer than the room itself because it was newer, but it was impossible to not expose him to the virus in the small room.    
  
She figured there was no point in resisting her draw to Stiles, her boyfriend? No. He wasn’t exactly her boyfriend. What was he anyway? A  _ high school sweetheart _ ? No, that would have been Jackson, maybe. Stiles was a little different, they never really talked about that either.

* * *

Lydia awoke around midnight and went to get a glass of water. She looked at Stiles, who was on the sofa with a spiral on his lap. His head tilted back slightly as he snored.   
  
Lydia found herself smiling, she liked waking up to Stiles. She moved across the room and took the spiral from his lap. She closed it without reading what was inside. Her name was written across the top, and she paused but then set it on her desk. Putting a blanket over her--she still didn’t know what he was. Her Stiles? Her Stiles. Yes, that. Of course. She felt so silly for being unwilling to say boyfriend, but he wasn’t exactly, was he?   
  
When she got her water she decided to go back to bed. She still needed a few hours of sleep, but she didn’t get much rest because at three, things really took a turn. When her eyes opened, she could hear the other banshees again, but they were all at once screaming. Most importantly she could feel the pain in her back. She sat up straight and pulled her shirt up over her head. “Stiles,” she said, moving to shake him awake.   
  
Stiles opened his eyes to see Lydia standing in front of him. “uh-what?” he blinked a few times and wiped his hand across his face. He noticed something: she wasn’t wearing a shirt.   
  
“Something’s wrong with my back.” she turned around. “Is there something on it? It hurts.”   
  
Stiles grabbed his phone and shined the light on it. He paused, her back was covered in sores that should not have been there so quickly. He stood and went into the kitchen to clean them up as much as he could but it wasn’t long before her symptoms took a dark turn. The skin on her back had begun to blister and ooze, too quickly to be a normal virus.

They broke open every few hours rather painfully. It waa noon when she started to feel queasy.

At two she threw up, all over the bed and all over herself. It was sight, but Stiles didn't hesitate, he moved across the room. "Okay, its okay let's go."

Lydia groaned. "Don't look at me."

"You need to get up.” His voice was hard.

Lydia of course protested.“I’m tired, Stiles.”   
  
“We need to get you cleaned up,” he said seriously. “Even if I have to hold you up.” He carefully walked Lydia to the shower and gently set her down on the floor. She laid down on her side to press her face into the cool tile.   
  
“Are you awake?”   
  
“Yes, I’m awake.” Lydia replied clearly.   
  
He waited for the water to come to temperature and removed his shirt, then moved to help Lydia get undressed. He unbuttoned her vomit soaked night-shirt and carefully pushed it over her shoulders. “There we go,” he said under his breath. She was wearing just a tank top underneath so he removed that easily before helping her stand and ditch the rest of her clothes.

He stepped into the shower still wearing a pair of boxers, guiding her carefully over the lip. “You didn’t have to do this.” Lydia mumbled, but her words went into his neck slightly. 

It wasn’t as if he’d never seen her naked before but he’d never seen her sick before and to see her this sick was messing with his head. He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off.   
  
“Don’t say it's because you’re my boyfriend, I’ll blow your eardrums out,” she mumbled, her voice still quiet.” She didn’t want to hear him say it was some kind of obligation as an excuse for being there for her.   
  
“I wasn’t going to say that.” He moved her hair to one side for her while she cleaned her chest of the discolored vomit. “I told you,” he used a wash rag to wipe her face in gently short strokes. “I’m here because you’re Lydia.” his voice was so soft in her ear that it was almost out of character. He seemed embarrassed by his words somehow. Since Scott became a werewolf, and since Lydia had joined that chaos, things had been different. 

Stiles started dating someone else, and Lydia had never really been his. Not in the way that he wanted to be hers, anyway.   
  
“Ever since high school … I’ve hated showers.” Lydia admitted. “I once considered cutting my hair short so it wouldn’t take as long, but I moved on from that … mostly.” she closed her eyes. She winced when the water hit one of the wounds on her back, promoting Stiles to turn the temperature down slightly. He acted quickly and a little clumsily, but he got it done without jolting Lydia too much and continued to help her.   
  
When Stiles met Malia, he wondered if he would fully forget his feelings for Lydia. That was just a crush right, it was something he would have mostly gotten over. She would be the one that got away, and maybe he would think about her sometimes when he was older and that was it, right?   
  
But there was a point where he realised that this crush he had, it became something more complex than that. It became something that would linger no matter what they were to each other, be it friends, or something else. It had turned from a stupid fleeting schoolboy crush to an honest love.

The only game this was for him, was the long one. He closed his eyes for a moment at the sound of her wincing. “Sorry,” he said softly.   
  
When Lydia’s body was clean she finally asked him for help. “Can I wash my hair too? I still feel dirty.”

“I … I could wash it for you.” he offered carefully.   
  
“Have you ever washed long hair before?” There was only some sass in her voice. “Can I trust you not to make it a rat’s nest?”   
  
“I washed my mom’s hair in the hospital once.” he admitted. “It wasn’t exactly the same way as I could here with a real shower but--” He wished he could fix this, that there was something he could do to make it better or make it hurt less.   
  
“I trust you,”   
  
There wasn’t though, all he could do was this, and so, Stiles lowered them down to the shower floor with her and grabbed the showerhead. She sat between his legs and her eyebrows rose. “Are you … wearing boxers in the shower?”   
  
“Yes? I didn’t want to be totally naked.” he answered, only now realising that that was a bit odd. They’d been naked around each other before.   
  
“Okay,” Lydia shrugged and let Stiles run the stream of water over her hair. She was able to lean partially on the wall now, the threat of slipping now having way fewer risks.   
  
When her hair was wet he gently started to lather lavender shampoo into her scalp while she carefully worked a lather into her ends.   
  
When her hair was rinsed and she felt as clean as she would, Stiles lifted her into his arms in a bridal carry, with minimal effort. She looked at him with wide, questioning eyes.  
  
He shrugged, moving her with it. “I’ve been working out a little bit.” his voice was a little bit strained, of course. He was still on the smaller side and he didn’t have werewolf strength to help him like Scott or one of the other werecreatures would.    


“I love you, Stiles.” her voice was low but not quite as quiet as they’d been talking before.   
  
He didn’t respond verbally, instead he pressed his lips to her temple in a serious action. His mind was far too full with tasks he had to complete.   
  
He stepped out of the shower and sat her up on the counter. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, the counter was cold against her bare skin but she let him wrap a towel around her. She leaned back and began to dry herself off while Stiles vanished to get rid of his wet boxers before he returned wearing just a pair of sweatpants.   
  
He gave her another towel to dry her hair with. He watched her actions, and she could feel his eyes on her. “Take a picture it will last longer,” but when she met his eyes she met Stiles-brand concern. “I’m going to be okay. The other Banshee’s would have told me if I was going to die.” Only then did she notice that he had vomit on his arm, above his wrist. He moved to the sink beside her and started to wash it off.   
  
It was really hard to figure out what Stiles was thinking when he got quiet like this. He was usually so loud and rambling. She used to find it annoying, but the more she got to know him, the more endearing it became. The more she craved it in a way, when it was gone it was usually during heavier times.   
  
Stiles just nodded and then kissed her forehead. “Are you feeling strong enough to walk?”   
  
She nodded in response and he helped her walk into the bedroom. She grabbed his bag instead of her own, pulling a shirt from the bag and pulling it over her head. “You’re the only person who gets to see me looking like a slob, Stilinski.”   
  
“You’re not a slob, you’re sick, and you look good in my shirt.” his voice was distant and careful. Usually he didn’t hesitate to hurl compliments at her even in awkward moments, but things were more tense right now and even Stiles could feel that. He was going to be trapped with her for the foreseeable future.    
  
Stiles was always someone who felt in absoutels, sometimes feeling as though he didn’t have a handle on his emotions. He was all or nothing, and sometimes, in his darkest moments he wished he could turn it off, but that wasn’t often.   
  
When Lydia looked at the bed she saw that Stiles had already changed the sheets. She felt a tender touch on her calf as Stiles slid his hand down her skin and put a pair of socks on her feet a bit clumsily. When the sock went up to her ankle he slowly rubbed up her calf again, swiping his thumb across the skin. “I can’t.” His mind was a million places at once, with Lydia, with his heart, thinking about the epidemic.   
  
“You can’t what?”   
  
“Nothing, sorry. Does everything still hurt? I think the fever should be letting up now.” the back of his hand tenderly pressed against her forehead.   
  
“I have gas pains too, I feel gross, and I feel like I should be doing something.” she admitted. Stiles laid down beside her in the bed and took her hand, guiding her to rub her stomach in circular motions up to her ribcage and then back down again.   
  
“What are you doing?” Lydia twitched and made a small sound involuntarily, the touch tickled a little.

“I don’t know, Melissa taught me how to do this one time when I was sick. Does it hurt?” He paused, feeling a bit embarrassed.    
  
“Not really.” She closed her eyes. “My back mostly hurts.”   
  
Stiles nodded, and she turned to lay on her stomach. He was starting to panic, she wasn’t getting better, she was getting worse. He wasn’t sure what else he could do. This wasn’t a dread doctor, this wasn’t something he could fight or call Scott for help.

* * *

Stiles stayed with Lydia for the next seventy-two hours, taking care of her. Cleaning her up when she got sick and making sure she drank and ate when she could keep food down. He wondered when she would get sick of seeing him. She never did. Though she did fear that she would die, her Banshee body seemed to be resisting the virus a bit more than the humans were. She laid on her stomach, with no shirt on. To let air get to the sores on her back that kept blistering.    
  
Stiles cracked open another can of monster and chugged about half of it before rubbing his face and pouring Lydia a short glass of pedialyte. He’d found some in her fridge from the last time she was sick a few weeks ago, though her symptoms were much milder then. He set it on the nightstand for her before he started pacing again. After days of trying to reach him, Isaac arrived to check in on things and see if there was anyting he could do.  
  
He knocked on the door and Stiles rushed to it, he was surprised to see Isaac had just shown up. He also wondered how Isaac got past the quarantine but he didn’t want to ask. He learned better than to ask Isaac those types of questions. “Hi.”   
  
“Can I come in, or?”   
  
Stiles hesitated. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Just hold on.” he ducked back into the room. Isaac heard shuffling and Stiles telling Lydia that Isaac was there. He heard more shuffling. Lydia was becoming less present and Stiles had to talk her through puttin on his shirt.   
  
Isaac had been nearby at University of Massachusetts, Boston. He had been a bit difficult to get a hold of as well. Lydia wondered what was keeping all the werewolves so occupied but didn’t want to ask.   
  
“Something in this school smells really bad. It’s even worse here. WHat is it?” He commented a little too casually.   
  
Stiles raised his eyebrows. “Sorry? What smell?”

“Something smells in here.” he pushed Stiles to the side and started to investigate. He picked up a glass of ice water from the night stand. “This.”   
  
“That doesn’t make any sense.” said Lydia, too calmly. “They tested the water, there’s nothing wrong with it.”   
  
Isaac sniffed the water again. “It _ does  _ smell. It smells like … I’ve never smelled anything like this before. Maybe we should call Deaton.”   
  
“I’ve been drinking Monster all week so that might explain why I’m not sick.” Stiles was already getting out his phone and dialing Deaton’s number.   
  
“I hope this is important, Stiles.” He said seriously.

Stiles let out the breath he was holding. “Good you answered. I’m quarantined at MIT, Isaac had to break in and there’s something in the water. Supplies, it’s somehow only in here and the CDC didn’t detect it. Only Isaac could. Do you have any advice?”   
  
“Do you have any activated charcoal?”   
  
“We are on lockdown, no I don’t have that.” Stiles nearly snapped.

Deaton was calm as always when he responded. “Well, it sounds like Isaac got in. Can he get out? You’ll need a few things.”

Stiles looked up at Isaac. “Can you get out and get back in again?”   
  
Isaac smirked. “If I leave now, yeah.”   
  
“Okay, Deaton, what do we need?” asked Stiles. He turned his phone on speaker.   
  
“You need activated charcoal and a red oak leaf, and rose leaves.” Deaton thought for a moment. “and wolfsbane. The red Oak Leaf will let Isaac pick the wolfsbane up, but not for very long so he’ll have to wrap it the leaves and then in something else.”   
  
“Well, I guess I’ll be back in an hour or so. If my hand doesn't burn off from wolfbane.” he said the last part loud enough for Deaton to hear.

Isaac set out and when he returned again he had backpack full of things he needed, as well as some more food. He pulled out the charcoal and they called Deaton back. “Okay, he’s got everything.” Stiles began. “What now?”

Stiles followed Deaton’s instructions to combine it, he carefully rubbed the leaves between his hands and crumpled them into the charcoal before starting to incorporate the wolfsbane. “Okay, that’s done. What now?”   
  
“You’ll need a little drop of werewolf blood too.” Deaton’s voice came through the phone again.   
  
Stiles looked at Isaac again, who reluctantly placed his hand over the mixture, and as Stiles blinked he used his claw to cut the back of his own arm and let a few drops go into the mixture.   
  
“I hope I don’t have to drink that,” said Lydia, her voice a bit far away.   
  
Stiles expected Isaac to hesitate but he didn’t, so he just mixed everything again. “Now,” Deaton began again. “Make it into a salve and rub it on the wounds on Lydia’s back.”   
  
“That will cure her?” Stiles asked.   
  
“If my suspicion is correct then yes, it will cure her. I’m getting on a flight, but I’ll be a few hours.”   
  
“Okay.” Stiles moved towards Lydia and waited for Isaac to turn around while he pushed Lydia’s shirt up.   
  
She giggled. “Stiles.” and pushed his hands away.   
  
“Lydia, I need you to focus for me. I have to put this on your back.” Stiles said seriously, and he could tell she was trying to stay lucid through the poison.

She nodded and held still while Stiles pushed her shirt up slightly to rub the salve on her back. “How long does it take to work?” Stiles asked Deaton who was audibly shuffling around.   
  
“It should work any minute if it’s what I think it is.”   
  
Lydia shrieked, not quite tapping into her Banshee powers but loud enough to spook both men in the room.   
  
“It’s working.” Said Deaton. “Listen, this is a very rare toxin made from a nearly extinct form of wolfsbane that is actually mostly harmless to Werewolves. I have to get there and treat others who’ve been poisoned. You need to find the source.”   
  
“Isaac, does the sink smell?”   
  
“No just the cup.”   
  
“It’s in the ice.” said Stiles as soon as the thought came to him.   
  
“What?” Isaac asked as Stiles stroked Lydia’s hair, trying to soothe her through whatever the cure was doing to her.    
  
“It’s okay.” he watched her cry into her pillow, her body ridgid like she was in pain. “Lydia.”   
  
“There’s ice machines on campus,” continued Stiles. “That’s where they put the poison, it’s not as obvious as the direct water supply, just the water supply to the ice machines, which also explains why some people aren’t getting sick. Stay with her.” Stiles said seriously, standing and rushing out the door.   
  
“Wouldn’t there be like dozens of ice machines on campus?” Isaac asked Deaton through Stiles’ phone, but moved to sit next to Lydia. He rested his hand on the side of the bed, in Lydia’s line of sight as she was curled up on the bed.   
  
“Yes. I don’t know how he thinks he’ll find them all before I get there with Rafael.”   
  
“Why did you call Scott’s dad?” Isaac asked, not liking that idea very much.   
  
“We need a badge right now.” Deaton replied. “Rafael might get there first.” he paused. “Yeah, he will. I’ll be arriving as soon as I can to treat the remaining victims. I’ll let him know about the ice machines.”   
  
Lydia reached out and took Isaac’s hand. “Hi.” she mumbled, her face half in the pillow.   
  
“Hi Lydia,” Isaac said calmly.   
  
“Stiles.” she pulled his hand up to put it under her face, and Isaac (very awkwardly) let her, not wanting to stress her out further. Her pain seemed to have lessened but she was still a bit airy. Stiles weaved his way through hallways and down another corridor until he found the first ice machine. He pulled it back from the wall, and started to tinker with the back of it, getting it open with a tool on her pocket knife. He pulled out the water filter and inside was a bag. He pulled it from it’s nesting place between the filter screens and opened it, wolfsbane and a few other things Stiles could not right away identify.

He was feeling a bit stupid for not figuring this out sooner, but he decided to focus on finding the rest.   


When Deaton arrived four hours later he launched right into treating the others affected. Rafael had come up with a cover story that this had been the work of a terrorist organization that the FBI had been tracking for months, which was half true. The McCall pack had been chasing down a rather dangerous pack with no leads, and there were few doubts that they were behind this one. 

Stiles returned to focus on Lydia after he’d gotten to a few of the ice machines, deciding to let Deaton, Rafael, and Isaac take care of the rest. Isaac seemed rather relieved to have his hand back.   
  
Stiles took care of her as her wounds healed and she slowly became more lucid.   
  
She slowly became healthier over the next hours following. “You should go back to your program, before they kick you out.” Lydia pointed out as she watched Stiles scribble away in his notebook.   
  
“The virus case is closed but,” he trailed off for a moment. “If you’re not sick of me, I would like to stay a few more days. Scott still hasn’t caught Jessica or her pack.”   
  
Lydia looked up at him. “I don’t know, you’ve gotten very annoying.” she tilted her head with a quick eye roll.   
  
Stiles knew she was joking and joined her in the bed. They laid together for a bit, and Stiles wasn’t planning on sleeping. He didn’t mind that Lydia was tucked up against his chest. One of his hands was gently wrapped up in her hair; his thumb gently stroking her cheek. She was recovering well. Something in what Dr. Deaton had given her and others who’d been affected was closing the wounds in her back rather rapidly. Not quite like they would in a werewolf, but pretty close.

* * *

Stiles stayed for the next few days, half to deal with the aftermath of the attack, and half for Lydia. All of the ice machines on campus were replaced and everyone was now painfully aware that Jessica was the werewolf they were looking for. He stayed with Lydia through that betrayal too.

  
His final night though, it was just them. No other responsibilities.   
  
“I’m sorry for saying I loved you when I was sick, it really wasn’t the time.” Lydia had broken the comfortable silence they had been laying in. They didn’t need to say anything, not after everything.   
  
“It’s okay.” He tried to think of why she was apologising. It wasn’t as if that was a secret. She seemed apologetic for not saying it back the last time the topic came up, and now she was sorry for saying it. It was throwing him a bit.   
  
Lydia paused. “I  _ did _ mean it. If you were wondering.”   
  
“I know you did,” he gave her an awkward half smile. “I’ve just kind of been going nuts these last few weeks. Before all of this, so my head was kind of full.”   
  
“Why?”   
  
“I didn’t know what to say to you, my head was kinda full. I didn’t mean to ignore it.”   
  
Lydia pulled back to look up at his face. “What?” Stiles had had a crush on her for as long as she could remember.

“I got lost in my head, and lost in the situation. I over think, it’s the anxiety, and maybe something else too. I’ve been thinking about you so much-- and I don’t know how to explain. I’m so serious about you.”  
  
Lydia reached out and put a hand through his hair. “I know, you've made that very clear over the years.” she smiled. “and it’s okay if you don’t want to say that you love me, or if you can’t, because I know you do.”  
  
“Lydia, I’m in love with you.”  
  
“In love _love_?” she couldn’t help but tease him just a little.  
  
“No it’s just, I mean. I think about _us_. I have never loved anyone like this in my life. This doesn’t feel like other times I felt like I was in love. This _feels_ _too_ _much_.”  
  
“What’s wrong with that?”

“I-” he sighed. “When you were sick, and you said that I wasn’t allowed to say that I was helping you because I’m your boyfriend,” he took her hand and squeezed it. “but I wasn’t thinking that at all.”   
  
“Stiles, you have to tell me what you were thinking for me to know.” Her sass dipping out just a bit. He usually managed to say exactly what he was thinking, even if there was some run around.   
  
“I was taking care of you because you’re Lydia.”   
  
“You said that.”   
  
“So I was thinking lately that I have no idea when I stopped having a stupid crush on you and actually fell in love with you." He was getting worked up, not exactly in a bad way, but the way he got when he was about to dump out a bunch of information. “When I said I would lose my mind if you died, I was being serious and that was a couple years ago, now I’m nineteen and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

"That's called the honeymoon phase, Stiles. You're not crazy." she smiled a little. “Just enjoy it, okay? We’re going to go to Jackson’s wedding together in a few months and things will be steady.”   
  
“I don’t think it’s going away. It’s been almost year, but ever since I came back to you from the Ghost Riders--”   
  
Lydia felt his body stiffen when he said that, and in response her hand gripped his a bit tighter. “I know.”   
  
He took a moment before speaking again. “I want us to take care of each other.”   
  
“We do, Stiles.” She kissed the back of his hand. “I take care of you, and you always take care of me. You always come for me.”

He turned onto his back and she moved in turn, coming to lay on his chest. “When I finish my FBI course, if you’re still with me, I want to ask you to marry me. Is that okay?”   
  
“Stiles, calm down. That’s years from now.”   
  
“I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m asking you if I can ask you in five years.”   
  
Lydia closed her eyes. “Yes, in five years you can ask me to marry you if you remember. Goodnight, honey.” she had to tease him a little bit, it had been disaster after disaster lately.   
  
Stiles smiled. “I like  _ honey _ .” he turned over slowly onto his side to get comfortable. He was sure he could sleep soon after Lydia did.

“Get used to it.” Lydia cuddled up against his back so they could get comfortable enough to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I made Stiles too unsure towards the end but this was my first time writing him. Hope I didn't do too horribly. Thanks for reading! :D


End file.
